Coppell Chronicle Vol. 2, No. 25

Schools Prepare for Next Shooter • St. Ann Carnival to Offer Alcohol • Do People Notice These Public Notices? • Common Sense Isn’t Always up to Code

Aug 14, 2022

Schools Prepare for Next Shooter

With a new school year starting for the first time since the Uvalde massacre, districts are reviewing their safety and security procedures. On Aug. 1, the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees was briefed on some recent upgrades to facilities and procedures:

The windows on all exterior doors are covered in ballistic film, which makes them harder to shatter.
“Stop the Bleed” bags have been added to the automated electronic defibrillators on all campuses.
Knox Boxes allow first responders to easily access buildings during an emergency.
Principals can announce a lockdown from any landline phone on a campus or via an app on their cellphones.

That’s not an all-inclusive list, for obvious reasons.

“We don’t share 100 percent of what all is included in our safety measures, because we want to make sure we’re not giving the information out in the wrong manner to the wrong folks who might use it against us,” Chief Operations Officer Dennis Womack told the trustees.

Womack said CISD’s Safety and Security Committee continually updates the district’s Emergency Operations Plan.

“Campus safety and security is a continuous process. It’s not a one-and-done,” he said. “You’re always building on your self-assessments, feedback, any reports, any audit findings that we have where we find vulnerabilities.”

Rachael Freeman, Coppell ISD’s Coordinator of Safety and Security, said the best line of defense is a well-trained, highly alert staff and student body. She said every person on every campus needs to be vigilant and report anything that seems suspicious. CISD’s STOPit tip line received 204 reports during the 2021-22 school year, which was a record high for Freeman’s tenure with CISD.

Freeman also urged parents to submit their background check forms as soon as possible.

“All those band moms and band dads, anybody that volunteers to read or do anything at the campuses, go ahead and submit those volunteer applications, so you don’t have to do that later on down the road when you want to chaperone your child’s field trip,” she said.

In the wake of Uvalde, Womack said, the state mandated that all school districts perform security audits of their exterior doors. Those audit reports are due by Sept. 1. Additionally, he said, state officials plan to periodically test whether they can intrude on particular campuses.

“The good news is, Ms. Freeman’s been doing that for years here,” Womack said. “We do intruder assessments frequently.”

Coppell ISD has school resource officers (SROs) deployed on all secondary campuses, and Freeman was one of them when she was a Coppell police officer. Trustee Leigh Walker asked why CISD doesn’t assign each elementary campus its own officer. Womack said it comes down to having enough people and enough money. If the trustees want to fund officers on all campuses, then another program — or multiple programs — would need to be cut.

“That would be one of the harder decisions to make, if we could even find the staff to put them there,” Womack said.

At least one other district is finding enough staff to provide security at all of its elementary schools. On Aug. 4, Freeman’s counterpart in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, Mario De La Rosa, told his district’s trustees that seven officers had already been hired, and the plan is to add at least 25 of them.

When Freeman was the SRO assigned to Coppell Middle School North, she was also responsible for Denton Creek Elementary and Victory Place @ Coppell. She said she could run from North to either of those other campuses in a minute.

“I feel very confident in the numbers and the staffing that we have,” Freeman told the trustees. “I am so incredibly grateful. We are blessed. We are just in a really good situation, in my opinion.”

St. Ann Carnival to Offer Alcohol

Patrons of the St. Ann Carnival are used to consuming cotton candy, kettle corn, and funnel cakes, but the menu for this year’s edition will feature an additional option: alcohol. On Tuesday, the Coppell City Council approved a resolution that will allow St. Ann Catholic Parish to temporarily operate a beer garden.

The parish needed the council’s blessing because there are two schools and another church within 300 feet of the parking lot where the carnival happens each year. City Secretary Ashley Owens showed this slide that indicates the beer garden’s location as a “sports bar” in the red circle.

Owens said she confirmed with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) that carnival patrons will able to roam the grounds with drinks in hand, but they will not be allowed to take alcohol off the premises. Council Member Mark Hill asked how the parish will ensure that patrons don’t bring their own alcohol to the carnival; he suggested that beer garden customers be given identifying wristbands along with their drinks.

Tim Barr, who chairs the St. Ann Carnival, said the alcohol menu will be limited to beer and wine.

“The concept would be to keep it very simple, very straightforward,” Barr said. “If someone is seen carrying something that is not on our menu, we’re going to know, and we will address it appropriately.”

Council Member John Jun asked how the parish will ensure that patrons aren’t overserved. City Attorney Bob Hager said the people pouring the beer and wine will need to follow TABC regulations, just as any bartender or server at a permanent establishment would.

The resolution was approved 5-0, with Mayor Pro Tem Biju Mathew and Council Member Brianna Hinojosa-Smith being absent.

The St. Ann Carnival is scheduled from 5 to 11 p.m. on Sept. 9, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sept. 10, and from 1 to 6 p.m. on Sept. 11.

Do People Notice These Public Notices?

During Tuesday’s discussion of the St. Ann Carnival, City Secretary Ashley Owens said a notice of the public hearing had been published in the Irving Rambler, which is Coppell’s paper of record. As you might expect, that notice did not generate any feedback.

Council Member John Jun asked Owens to confirm that the notice was published only in the Rambler.

“At one time, we did attempt to go out to the Coppell Gazette,” Owens said in response, “but they do not have the permit that is required to be a paper of record.”

Longtime readers of this newsletter may recall that I was confused last summer about what type of permit the Gazette may lack. (See “On Paper, This Doesn’t Add Up” in Vol. 1, No. 18.) I’m even more befuddled today due to notices published in recent editions of the Gazette:

Today’s edition: The City of Coppell placed a legal notice of the Aug. 23 public hearing on the proposed budget for the Coppell Crime Control and Prevention District.
Aug. 7 edition: Coppell ISD placed two public notices. One was promoting the trustees’ Aug. 22 votes on the budget and tax rate; the other was an annual notice of nondiscrimination.
July 31 edition: The City of Coppell placed a legal notice of the City Council’s Aug. 9 vote on a maximum tax rate.
July 24 edition: The City of Coppell placed a public notice regarding the Coppell Recreation Development Corporation’s work program.
July 17 edition: The Gazette published nearly three full pages’ worth of legal notices from cities such as Allen and Frisco and school districts such as Mesquite ISD and Plano ISD.

Jun’s question dovetailed with a conversation that happened earlier Tuesday. At his request, the council’s work session included a discussion of the legal notices of public hearings.

That discussion was not about where such notices are published. Jun’s concern was that the notices mailed to residents who live within 800 feet of a proposed zoning change don’t contain enough information. As you may recall from the July 17 edition, some neighbors of the Blackberry Farm development complained about the scant details they received regarding the nascent subdivision’s latest zoning change.

During Tuesday’s work session, City Attorney Bob Hager played devil’s advocate, asking Jun and Council Member Mark Hill how the city staff could consistently decide what to include in such notices. After all, he said, a detail that could be important to one neighbor might be meaningless to another. The council ultimately asked that mailed notices include a URL or a QR code that would make all of a proposal’s details easy to find.

Meanwhile, the ordinance regarding Blackberry Farm was on the council’s consent agenda on Tuesday. Jun asked that the ordinance be considered as a separate item so he could vote against it, “because a number of residents believe that the notices they received was not sufficient enough for them to understand what the planned development changes are.” The other four council members in attendance voted to approve it.

Because no Coppell residents live within 800 feet of a property that will be discussed by the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission this week, here’s an unofficial notice: On Thursday evening, the commissioners will consider a proposal to turn an empty tract on the east side of South Belt Line Road, between Dividend Drive and Hackberry Road, into a shopping center that will feature three office buildings and at least seven restaurants. I’ll have all the details in next week’s Chronicle.

Common Sense Isn’t Always up to Code

It’s a good thing the Coppell Board of Adjustment doesn’t meet on a monthly basis, because watching their meetings is one of the more frustrating things about publishing this newsletter.

On Aug. 4, the Board of Adjustment considered a request from Bob Hunnicutt for a variance to city code. He wants to erect a carport 3 feet closer to his rear property line than what is allowed.

According to Chief Building Official Stephen Schubert, Hunnicutt’s contractor applied for a permit to build a carport 7 feet from the rear property line. The plans were approved with a “redline comment” highlighting the requirement for a 10-foot setback. (At most Coppell homes, the setback requirement is 20 feet, but Hunnicutt’s property is an exception because it has a side alley instead of a rear alley.)

The contractor either ignored or didn’t notice that redline comment, because piers for the carport’s posts were dug according to the original plans. The project consequently failed a subsequent inspection, which stopped the construction process and sparked the Aug. 4 hearing.

Here are a few reasons that you might think approving Hunnicutt’s request would be a no-brainer:

Hunnicutt told the board that he shared his plans for the carport with all of his neighbors. To his knowledge, none objected.
Hunnicutt’s property is at the end of a cul-de-sac due west of Duck Pond Park, so the carport would not be visible from any street.
It would also not be visible from the park due to his garage between the park and the carport’s intended location.
That freestanding garage is only 1 foot from the rear property line, or 9 feet closer than what’s allowed, but it was built at a time when that location complied with city code.

However, the Board of Adjustment’s purview for granting a variance is limited to whether or not the variance would alleviate a hardship.

“The uniqueness of the property does not create the need for a variance,” City Attorney Bob Hager told the board. “There’s plenty of property to build with the setback. Therein lies the dilemma. While it’s visually more appealing, and may be functionally more appealing, it doesn’t constitute a hardship.”

In fact, Hunnicutt’s situation could be considered the opposite of a hardship. He wants to build the carport only because his children gave him and his wife a 1957 Ford convertible as a Christmas present.

“We’re trying to find some way to protect it,” he told the board.

As frustrating as watching this meeting was, I was entertained by this exchange:

Hunnicutt: “It wouldn’t do any good for me to sit here and argue with you; you’re a lawyer. But I just think we’re way off.”
Hager: “You’re looking at this from common sense. I’m looking at how the ordinance is written.”
Hunnicutt: “I think that’s what you’re hired for.”

Rhett Hickey told Hunnicutt that he and the other board members were sympathetic to his plight.

“If it were under our guidelines to grant you this variance, I could tell you that, personally, I would do it,” Hickey said. “Unfortunately, we are bound by our requirements to uphold the zoning that is currently in place.”

In the end, the board did not grant the variance. But as Hager often advises them to do, they made a motion to approve Hunnicutt’s request, and then didn’t vote for it, rather than vote for a motion to reject the request.

“So you want a positive deal and then vote negative against it,” Hunnicutt said to Hager while shaking his head. “That’s politics, isn’t it?”

Chronicle Crumbs

• The Coppell City Council on Tuesday approved a zoning change that will allow a two-story building to be constructed on a vacant lot in Old Town. It will feature two apartments on the second floor and as many as three retail spaces on the ground floor. See the July 24 edition for more details.

• In the July 31 edition, I quoted City Attorney Bob Hager as saying that only children are allowed to ride bicycles on Coppell sidewalks. A reader pointed me to the relevant section of the Code of Ordinances, which does not mention children or adults.

• I’m too curious to not look into the “Welcome Home, Pastor Ernie” sign posted along Sandy Lake Road. The Rev. Ernie Hinojosa, who has been the senior pastor of Rejoice Lutheran Church since 2013, returned from a sabbatical this month.

• I noticed yesterday that PPG Paints has vacated its space in the Denton Tap Road shopping center anchored by J. Macklin’s Grill.

• The Dallas Morning News recently published a peek inside the U.S. headquarters of McLaren Automotive at 1405 S. Belt Line Road. The article says the British firm “previously stored cars in locations around the country, but now the inventory is at the new Coppell location.”

• If you’re missing a handmade Antonio Rubén guitar, get in touch with Paula Donato at the Coppell Police Department. The cops have had custody of the instrument for more than 30 days, and they’re going to auction it off if the owner doesn’t claim it soon. (I learned all that by reading a legal notice published in the Irving Rambler.)

Community Calendar

Meet the Teacher Night: All elementary campuses in Coppell ISD will host this event from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Monday; classes begin Wednesday.

Coppell Cowgirls volleyball: The Cowgirls have already played two road matches and participated in a tournament. Their home opener against McKinney Boyd will start at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Color Study: An opening reception for this exhibit featuring work by James Helms, Jennifer Pickett, and Meera Thamaran is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday at the Coppell Arts Center.

Coppell Competitive Shooting Team: If your children are interested in shooting skeet or sporting clays, sign them up for an open practice scheduled from 8 to 11 a.m. on Saturday.

Lacrosse Round Up: The Coppell Lacrosse Association has scheduled a series of clinics for boys and girls of all ages, from kindergarten to 12th grade, for Aug. 27 at Lesley Field.

Introduction to Mindfulness: Adults are invited to learn about the benefits of mindful meditation at 2 p.m. on Aug. 28 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.

The Magic of Rob Lake: The acclaimed illusionist will perform twice on Aug. 28 — at 2 p.m. and at 6 p.m. — at the Coppell Arts Center.